What is DC Entertainment doing? What is their plan?

[TheVileOne]

I'm hardly a Marvel fanboy. Booster Gold is one of my favorite characters ever, and I bleed green blood empowered by Green Lantern.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

You don't call a Green Lantern film next month, A Batman and a Superman Film next year another GL, and a Flash film in 2013 moving on something. For that matter, they've now committed themselves to 2 CBM's per year so that's a step in the right direction for comic book fans.

Kinda....but this is 2011. We are getting the first GL movie? Was someone at WB trapped in the ice with Capt America for the past decade while we got Daredevil, Ghost Rider, X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, Punisher, Iron Man, and FF movies?

So the first Flash movie will come out in 2013? ....a year after the Avengers movie. And do we know the Flash movie is coming? Suppose GL underperforms? (I see at least $150 million US....hopefully) Will WB balk?

DC appears to be a decade behind Marvel. I understand not being first out of the gate and all that....but wasn't it pretty clear in 2002 that comic hero movies work? I mean...come on.

 

[jmc]

Regardless if people like it or not, WB isn't in the business of only making superhero films. Marvel is, they had the luxury of being an independently owned company who was later bought out by Disney. There's probably some contract somewhere saying Disney stays the **** away from what Marvel do. DC are never going to be a movie studio, ever, I'm sure those in charge of DC would like to run one, but ultimately WB is the big daddy and is the one who makes the decisions.

 

[ClarkLuther55]

The comics are a single continuity, but even that seems to change every 20 years or so with a crisis.

Those "crisis" stories are intended to clear up continuity, and even if they actually make things messier they only come every few years or decades. Still, only one comic continuity is really pushed at a time.

Like I said before. Burton's Batman is not Nolan's and they are different universes. That's what I am talking about. They could have never been the same else Batman would have never known commissioner Gordon (They just met each other in Batman '89, but yet he met him at the end of "Batman Begins"). That's a miscontinuity, and hence, your different universes.

Nolan's Batman wasn't even produced in the same decade as Burton's Batman. That's my point. They didn't confuse the audience or create unnecessary conflicts by making two major movies with different versions of the same character, at the same time. They waited until Burton's Batman was long gone before Nolan did his movie.

The whole notion that the film was going to take place before the events of "Batman '89" was just an excuse to allow the writer and director change the character without pissing off any fans of the previous films.

No, it was an actual perception by some people out there. And it's not like fans didn't want a Batman reboot by the 2000's, after B&R ruined the franchise.

 

[Duke]

Honestly, I think DC is either being extremely cautious & playing a "wait & see game" or does'nt have a gameplan for their characters.

 

[Ultra Lantern]

Honestly, I think DC is either being extremely cautious & playing a "wait & see game" or does'nt have a gameplan for their characters.

Stan Lee is the CEO of Marvel.That's probably why all the Marvel movies are coming out.

 

[HighFivingMF]

I'm gonna say it again, I said it a few months ago.

I believe Poni's report about the DC Universe not containing Superman or Batman and having a Justice League comprised of Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter.

 

[Karelia]

I'm gonna say it again, I said it a few months ago.

I believe Pony's report about the DC Universe not containing Superman or Batman and having a Justice League comprised of Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter.

I actually like that idea. It'll give the audience a chance to know the lesser-known characters a little more than they would if Superman & Batman were in it (hopefully). I'm HOPING Green Arrow can appear in it, if the JL movie actually happens. If JL does well, maybe Superman and Batman could appear in the sequel or something? I'd hope RR would be GL in it, and try and get Cavill for Superman if he did appear in it. I think this might be a good opportunity to introduce a new face to Batman on the screen if Bale doesn't feel the need to come back. I guess you could always use a different GL for the Justice League film if need be.

I know they said it wouldn't be in continuity with the films, and that doesn't bother me. I'd still like to see the same actors play the characters if possible.

In that leaked interview with Ryan Reynolds, he said he wanted to see a Justice League movie, and have the feeling the DC Universe Online cinematic trailer did.

I'd love to see that myself. t:

 

[Duke]

Stan Lee is the CEO of Marvel.That's probably why all the Marvel movies are coming out.

I might be wrong but I think Avi Arad is, not Stan Lee.

 

[Ultra Lantern]

I might be wrong but I think Avi Arad is, not Stan Lee.

Who appears in all the Marvel Movies?---Stan Lee
Who gave Arnold Schwarzenegger a cartoon called The Govenator?---Stan Lee


I think Avi Arad is a writer or a director.

 

[Duke]

Who appears in all the Marvel Movies?---Stan Lee
Who gave Arnold Schwarzenegger a cartoon called The Govenator?---Stan Lee


I think Avi Arad is a writer or a director.

Google it dude & you'll see.

 

[HighFivingMF]

I don't think Stan Lee has been Editor-In-Chief since the '70s. Is the Governator even Marvel?

Stan Lee doesn't appear in the movies because he's the boss and he forces them. He appears because he made the characters and it's a sign of respect.

 

[Ultra Lantern]

Google it dude & you'll see.

My mistake.

 

[Duke]

My mistake.

na-na-na-na-na-na

 

[TheVileOne]

You can't do a Justice League movie without the heavy hitters. It's like doing Avengers without the big 3.

 

[Lestat74]

I think it is pretty clear that DC Entertainment doesn't really know what it is doing yet. If that was the case, they would have never let the David E. Kelley version of Wonder Woman get as far as it did, they would have protected the character more. I've stated all this here before, but I truly believe that no concrete decisions are going to be made in regard to the JLA movie until A: Green Lantern opens and B: The Avengers opens. Warners are not known for being a taking risks kind of studio, especially with their super hero movies.

Here are what I think are the possible/probable outcomes. And before TheVileOne or anyone else jumps down my throat, these are just my opinions.

1: Green Lantern opens and does good, but not great, business (think Thor numbers) If that is the case, then plans will probably still move forward with a JLA movie, with Ryan Reynolds as GL. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman will likely be different than their other movie/tv counterparts. And frankly, those three characters are so iconic and well known that it won't be that weird for people to accept other people in these roles at the same time as someone else is playing them. The DC Trinity is now in the echelons of characters like Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and James Bond. We can have mutlitple versions of these characters and people will get it. GL, Flash etc, well...they are essentially brand new characters to the mainstream. They don't have the same leeway. I imagine any Green Lantern and Flash films will be in continuity with the JLA movie.

2:Green Lantern opens huge and is this year's Iron Man. If this happens, not only does Ryan Reynold's asking price suddenly go WAY up, but I imagine production will start almost instantly on GL 2. That makes him too busy for JLA. HOWEVER...in GL 2 they could introduce John Stewart as his partner and "back up" GL on Earth when he is away. Leaves that character open for the JLA movie, and will answer critics who say the JLA is the "all white people" league. Besides, the most well known/seen version of the League is the cartoon, so a certain segement of the audience will expect him anyway. There will be a GL in a JLA movie, but how the first Green Lantern movie does will really decide just who it is that will be wearing the ring in JLA.

And I actually think Robinov misspoke when he said Flash would be JLA spin off movie, Now with Wonder Woman, because Warners doesn't want to make a Wonder Woman movie anyway and we know that, that might be a spin-off.... but Flash is pretty far along in the script process and it is a pet character for the Green Lantern producers. Again, if Green Lantern opens huge and does Iron Man like business, then expect Flash next. If GL underperforms, then maybe expect Flash in a JLA movie first. Again, we won't know for sure for awhile.

If Green Lantern opens mega huge though, and is this year's Iron Man (or even this year's Star Trek reboot) then expect more real concrete news at Comic Con time in July, even if it is only an announcement and a time table.

 

[chamber-music]

People are looking at this as fans rather than a business which is what it is for these companies.

To be fair its not like WB/DC have not been trying to get their superheroes to the big screen since the comic book movie boom took off a decade ago. They had Joss Whedon work on a Wonder Women script, David Goyer a Flash and Green Arrow (supermax) script. George Millar got far into preproduction on a Justice League movie which already had a cast.

None of those developments ever made it into production for various reasons. WB has had little reason to rush and develop movies for their DC superheo characters as the Harry Potter franchise as a tentpole bringing them huge revenue. They are now looking to their superhero franchises as new tentpoles to replace Harry Potter now that franchise has ended.

Green Lantern is testing the waters for DC/WB they want to see how it does and if its a success I'm sure they will move on to bring more Superhero characters to the big screen.

 

[Lencho01]

From about a year ago...

http://collider.com/donald-deline-grant-major-nyla-dixon-geoff-johns-interview-green-lantern/91009/

With Dr. Amanda Waller being in the film, who is a character through out DC comics, this feels like the first DC comic book film that could sit up a continuity that could have other films tie into it. One of the things I noticed at Comic Con was how Thor, in a way, looks very much like Iron Man in terms of its sort of “look”. Are you guys trying to set a base of look with the GreenLantern? Is there an idea or aesthetic that you want to set up for future DC films?

Geoff Johns: Martin Campbell is obviously doing his own thing here and building an entirely different world. It’s a different take on Green Lantern and whether or not that leads to more films being connected to it has to be determined.

Grant Major: We wanted to stay away from Star Wars and all of these other things that have been done before. We can’t be accused of doing other movies.

Donald De Line: It does have a very organic approach when you look at it.

Geoff Johns: The thing about DC comics and their characters is that they are not Marvel characters. Marvel characters are so grounded in reality, and you can see how big this movie is already probably just from the art room alone. DC characters are more epic and iconic. They embody ideals so their worlds are canvases that they are aimed across, and they are huge. The Flash just doesn’t run fast and beat up a guy because he is trying to take over his company. The Flash is all about time, other dimensions, and reality itself. It’s just how The Green Lantern is about the universe, space, and the emotional spectrum. So the goal is to have DC films embody the best of what the DC characters are. They are not just like Marvel characters. It’s a very different universe in my mind. The Dark Knight is the ultimate crime superhero film. If you want to do a vigilante film, you can’t do better film than a Batman film done by Nolan.

You mentioned Christopher Nolan. If this Green Lantern film turns out to be the launching pad to a wider DC Universe on film…

Geoff Johns: I can’t risk talking about other DC feature films. I’ll get hung.

Will you get in trouble?

Geoff Johns: I’ll get in trouble right now.

Is there anything that is set up in this film that might lead to a bigger world?

Geoff Johns: I can’t…they will shoot me.

Donald De Line: With just going to OA you can see how that could lead to a bigger world.

Geoff Johns: The world of Green Lantern is so big. The different mythology of Green Lantern is so massive. All of the different characters like Guy Gardner, Jon Stewart, Kyle Rayner, and the different corps.

Will there be any hints of those characters?

Geoff Johns: Well, this is just the first film. So it will just be the start.
No talk about Earth 2 anywhere in a throwaway line, dialogue, or anything?

Geoff Johns: No.

 

[TheVileOne]

Meh, boring. I don't get all the cloak and dagger secrecy.

It sounds like they are just afraid to say no because that would upset hardcore fans.

 

[Duke]

I agree. All those WB/DC bigwigs are a bunch of cowards when it comes to commiting to a DC project instead adopting a wait & see if it successful stance.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

Regardless if people like it or not, WB isn't in the business of only making superhero films. Marvel is, they had the luxury of being an independently owned company who was later bought out by Disney. There's probably some contract somewhere saying Disney stays the **** away from what Marvel do. DC are never going to be a movie studio, ever, I'm sure those in charge of DC would like to run one, but ultimately WB is the big daddy and is the one who makes the decisions.

Marvel didn't start making their own movies until 2008 though. And they still managed to get their characters out there when they were in a worse position than DC is at WB. At least DC should have more control over the characters while they are being made. I say that...but then Jonah Hex jumps up and slaps me in the face. Hopefully WB had more to do with that than DC did!

So to me, DC has been in a better position from the start and still is falling behind.

Here are what I think are the possible/probable outcomes. And before TheVileOne or anyone else jumps down my throat, these are just my opinions.

1: Green Lantern opens and does good, but not great, business (think Thor numbers) If that is the case, then plans will probably still move forward with a JLA movie, with Ryan Reynolds as GL. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman will likely be different than their other movie/tv counterparts. And frankly, those three characters are so iconic and well known that it won't be that weird for people to accept other people in these roles at the same time as someone else is playing them. The DC Trinity is now in the echelons of characters like Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and James Bond. We can have mutlitple versions of these characters and people will get it. GL, Flash etc, well...they are essentially brand new characters to the mainstream. They don't have the same leeway. I imagine any Green Lantern and Flash films will be in continuity with the JLA movie.

2:Green Lantern opens huge and is this year's Iron Man. If this happens, not only does Ryan Reynold's asking price suddenly go WAY up, but I imagine production will start almost instantly on GL 2. That makes him too busy for JLA. HOWEVER...in GL 2 they could introduce John Stewart as his partner and "back up" GL on Earth when he is away. Leaves that character open for the JLA movie, and will answer critics who say the JLA is the "all white people" league. Besides, the most well known/seen version of the League is the cartoon, so a certain segement of the audience will expect him anyway. There will be a GL in a JLA movie, but how the first Green Lantern movie does will really decide just who it is that will be wearing the ring in JLA.

Hope this isn't accurate for Flash's sake. I do think GL will do well, but so few CB movies break $200 million...that's a lot to ask for.

 

[Captain Marvel]

I don't understand why Marvel fanboys even care what DCE is doing. Or are my suspicions correct in thinking it's a "We're better than you" argument?

You do realize, right, that being a fan of one company doesn't preclude your being a fan of the other company, as well? Or is that too difficult a concept for you to grasp?

As a fan of both companies, I'm VERY interested in what DCE is doing, because I want good movies of all my favorite characters, no matter which company owns them. And yes, comparing it to what Marvel is doing is a valid example because Marvel made a great decision when they decided to have all their superhero movies in a shared universe, and that's something I'd like to see in DC movies, as well.

At last year's New Your City ComciCon, Geoff Johns confirmed that statement adding his own personal felling that the DC characters were "bigger than Marvel's" and that DC would work on building up their individual characters in their own comic book universe rather than "smashing them together".

You know, I'm a huge fan of Geoff Johns. He's my favorite writer, and it's ridiculous the stacks of his work that I've collected. I own pretty much everything he's ever done for DC up until the past year or so, and I only stopped because I had to cut the money I was spending and couldn't afford to buy comics every month, anymore. And you know what? He sounds like an idiot, here.

If DC's characters are so much "bigger" then why do they occupy a shared universe in the comic world just as Marvel's characters do? The answer is because they're NOT bigger. Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Wolverine, there's no real difference there. That just sounds like a cheap excuse to justify not having a shared film universe. If they don't want to pursue that route then fine. There're plenty of valid reasons they can give out for not wanting to emulate Marvel. They could say that they don't want viewers to experience a sense of deja vu when watching their movies after watching the Marvel movies. They could say they don't want the quality of their individual entries to suffer in order to serve a later Justice League movie (I.E. Make movies that feel less like standalone movies and more like extended commercials for a JLA movie). But to say that they won't do it because they're "bigger"? Pffft. Give me a break.

If they want to take that route, fine, but that's a shame. I was really hoping to see them do a shared universe as well. One thing I always disliked about superhero movies, until Marvel started doing what it was doing, was that in every universe the main character was always the one and only superhero on the entire planet. And, of course, he was grossly outnumbered by the number of supervillains in existence (which, I suppose, they always invariably had to die by the end of the movie). Even stranger is when every supervillain happens to live in the same town as the superhero. A shared universe, however, makes infinitely more sense than one where there's only one superhero on the planet and no more.

The real facepalm inducing thing here, though, is the idea of having a Justice League movie running concurrently with a Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, etc movie... while not using the same actors from those movies. Honestly, I don't see how that can't be a bad idea. The audiences are all going to be confused as hell when they see a Justice League movie come out and it's got a completely different set of actors from those starring in the individual franchise movies, and has absolutely nothing to do with it. You'd think DC would've learned their lesson with the multiverse back in the 80's with Crisis on Infinite Earths, but nope. It appears they're hellbent on peppering the cinemaplex's with Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-671, Earth-S, Earth-X, etc movies. And that, IMO, is a terrible idea.

 

[Timstuff]

The fans want a JL movie that connects the characters from the solo movies, and I'm pretty darned sure the audience would prefer it as well. The question is, who at Warner Bros. doesn't want it? It all comes down to money, I bet. They are scared of how much it would cost to do the JL movie the right way, so they'd rather set it in a parallel universe where all the characters coincidentally look like underpaid TV actors. If they're not going to do it right, why even bother?

Whenever they've given out an answer that wasn't ambiguous, it's always been "no." And then the fans backlashed, so now people like Johns aren't allowed to talk about it at all, and at most have to be evasive with things like "it all depends on how the next DC film does, so watch it a bunch of times with your friends and families!" Warner Bros. needs to put their money where their mouths are and commit to a united vision of the DC universe. The DC universe is huge, and there's plenty of room in there for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash to occupy the same planet without constantly running into each other.

And what's even dumber is when you consider the fact that this is the same studio that instated the infamous Batman Embargo on the DC Animated Universe. They refused to let Ra's Al Ghul show up in Justice League because it might confuse children who just saw Batman Begins, and yet they are perfectly OK with having mutliple Batmen, Supermen, and Wonder Women in the movies at the same time. I suspect that after all this time, WB still doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

 

[Mako]

The fans want a JL movie that connects the characters from the solo movies, and I'm pretty darned sure the audience would prefer it as well. The question is, who at Warner Bros. doesn't want it? It all comes down to money, I bet. They are scared of how much it would cost to do the JL movie the right way, so they'd rather set it in a parallel universe where all the characters coincidentally look like underpaid TV actors. If they're not going to do it right, why even bother?

Whenever they've given out an answer that wasn't ambiguous, it's always been "no." And then the fans backlashed, so now people like Johns aren't allowed to talk about it at all, and at most have to be evasive with things like "it all depends on how the next DC film does, so watch it a bunch of times with your friends and families!" Warner Bros. needs to put their money where their mouths are and commit to a united vision of the DC universe. The DC universe is huge, and there's plenty of room in there for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash to occupy the same planet without constantly running into each other.

And what's even dumber is when you consider the fact that this is the same studio that instated the infamous Batman Embargo on the DC Animated Universe. They refused to let Ra's Al Ghul show up in Justice League because it might confuse children who just saw Batman Begins, and yet they are perfectly OK with having mutliple Batmen, Supermen, and Wonder Women in the movies at the same time. I suspect that after all this time, WB still doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

Wasn't there an embargo on Ra's and Scarecrow for The Batman as well ?

 

[Airwings]

Captain Marvel:
Isn't it so that the DC heroes are different because they are more mythological and god-like? Marvel tends to make real people of their characters, with problems and flaws just to make the readers indentify with them more easy. while DC is more about to treat its heroes like they are above humans. The majority of characters in each company are like that. Just compare Batman and Punisher, two non-powered characters. Which one of them is more fantastical and longer from reality - could it be the super smart guy who master martial arts like no-one else, have lots and lots of gadgets and dresses up as a bat?

It has to do when the heroes was written. DC started in 30s and 40s, while the typical Marvel heroes came in 60s. It was a different time.